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I’ve been wanting to design some new spreads for some time now. With the weather finally turning from oppressive heat and blazing sun to the cool, grey days I love about the Northeast, I was inspired to create a spread for Fall.

I call it the Maple Spread because it loosely resembles a maple leaf, especially with my brown, woody Binding of Isaac deck. I chose this deck because I’ve been playing the game a lot lately so I’m feeling really connected to the energy.

The grounding card represents the overall energy of the season. What’s the theme of this Fall? The “spire” cards each focus on an individual month, telling you where to direct that overarching energy. I gave this new spread a shot and I’m very pleased with how well it worked. The grounding card feeds into each month incredibly well.

The Reveal! At first glance, the grounding card is the only major arcana presence. Strong foundation. And the Empress! Then I see half of my pulls are fours, which represent security and stability. I think of those words and heavy wool socks, steaming tea, and mountains of blankets and snuggles all come to mind. But let’s dig into the spread.

Overall Fall EnergyThe Empress
I love this card! She is the feminine energy of creation, and nurturing self and others. This season is all about embracing the sensual – activate all of your senses to create beauty in your life. Make a winter garden in a jar. Indulge in pumpkin spice, ginger and clove. Bake a pie for your neighbors or coworkers. Surround yourself with what inspires you to MAKE what you love.

September FocusSix of Hearts (Cups)
Tap into your childhood to inspire new projects and works of passion. Let nostalgia carry you to familiar places. It’s not about living in the past, but rather borrowing aspects from days gone to blend into new fabrics, poems, recipes, spells, songs…

October FocusFour of Pennies (Pentacles)
In October, transition from nostalgia to tradition. What can you resurrect from the past to create new traditions, or update sacred ones? Tradition is one of the greatest methods of building a sense of stability. Remember that you can’t control the chaos, but relying on rituals and the Fall traditions you create will alleviate the worry.

November FocusFour of Keys (Swords)
This is actually the perfect November card as it places the emphasis on creating calm heading into the often stressful traditional holiday season. Build mental strength through meditation. Revamp your morning ritual. Go to your happy place – mentally and in real life as often as you can. Take a bubble bath every night. Do whatever it takes to move your mind into a calm atmosphere where you feel protected. Rest and replenish your energy.

This deck is very special to me. The Eight Coins Tattoo Tarot is my 8th deck, and I’m an 8 in numerology. It came signed and with an extra card drawn from the creator’s personal deck… well, when it came. The USPS took my initial order and lost it in spectacular fashion. Sometimes I still check the tracking number to visit that deck as it rests somewhere near Atlanta. Lana happened to find a leftover deck with one of her cards in it and she was kind enough to send it to me. As my newest deck, it’s my last in my tarot interview series.

What are you here to teach me?V of Pentacles
I know I’m not the deck you expected. I’m a replacement for one lost in the mail. A leftover my creator didn’t sell. But I hope you will accept and treasure me anyway.

What are your strengths?The Magician
I make shit happen. I get the gears turning. Look how I got off that dusty shelf and made my way to New York City! Let’s create a kick ass destiny.

What are your limitations?The World
The journey of my creation was a long and arduous process filled with lots of hills and valleys. Then I traveled to you after lying forgotten on a shelf. I’m worried my trip has come to an end when I’m not meant to sit still.

What are you here to teach me? *Note: I pulled this card with my left hand while thinking about how the left hand is supposed to be closer to the heart. And this card bears the image of a heart!VII of Wands
To stand up and fight for yourself (like I did) and your ideas. Stand in your power and magic. Know you are unstoppable!

How can we best collaborate? *Note: This is also the extra signed card in the deck!X of Swords
You need to let go of the lost deck. It’s gone. Stop checking the tracking number. I’m here and I deserve your attention, not your disappointment. We both need to let go and move forward, together.

What’s the potential outcome of our relationship?IV of Wands
We’ll celebrate many moments of success and achieve anything we want to. The universe is a party and we have an exclusive invitation to shine bright.

I immediately connected with this deck like no other. It called me out about the lost deck and blew me away with this interview. I’ve decided this is the deck I’ll always travel with so its journey never stops.

The Tarot of the Silicon Dawn is by far the most challenging in my collection. There are 21 unconventional arcana cards in addition to the traditional 78, including Void cards and four Fools! The personality of this deck is, in the artist’s words, “fully prepared to give you the finger.” But I adore comic book style imagery with sexy sci-fi twists.

Tell me about yourself.0 of (Void) – a small white butterfly with a rainbow trail on a black card
I am free of associations. Not bound by the elements or astrological ties, my energy precedes the constellations and will outshine the last star. I am chaotic. I am raw potential. I am unformed power.

What are your strengths?Princess of Swords
There’s no one like me. I’m wild. Unconventional. Unpredictable. I am a cocoon of opposites and madness so thick that I could suffocate, but I thrive despite myself. My ambiguity is my strength. I am never wrong because I am never right.

What are your limitations?Ace of Pentacles
1. I wear many identities. Sometimes I lose myself in my masks. Sometimes you will not be able to see through them
2. I can be a destructive force. Like fire, I can’t help what I am.

What are you here to teach me?99 of Wands
Transcendence, in a word. How to grow your inner magic enough to create the right conditions for your being to go on to other worlds and lives after death.

How can we best collaborate?4 of Pentacles
Retreat internally and focus. Achieve mental and emotional stability despite any potential flaws in your world and I will be able bring you the most clarity in my complexity.

What’s the potential outcome of our relationship?4 of Wands
Peace, solitude and riches in your own little ivory tower. But beware ⎻ as you well know, towers eventually crumble.

When I started this interview, I had a lot of anxiety. I was afraid of these cards. They’re the smallest of all my tarot cards, but they felt so aggressive and almost ominous. The more I handled them though, the more they got to know my energy, they began to change and feel more malleable. More comfortable. This deck will always be tough. I might always need to rely on the book for help interpreting the cards, but it also has the most potential.

The Deviant Moon by Patrick Valenza is my oldest and dearest deck. I was drawn in by the dark, almost Tim Burton meets Salvador Dali aesthetic back in college and it’s the deck I’ve studied and learned on and bonded with over the last 10ish years.

Over those years, this deck has some to truly speak to me. Cards quite literally often “jump” out of the deck at me. This happens so often that I tend to just shuffle until the required number of cards have all jumped out. My Deviant Moon readings are clearest and most comfortable so I’m excited for this interview!

Tell me about yourselfNine of Cups
Like the genie on this card, you discovered our power together the moment you opened me. I work as you wish to bring well-being, pleasure and success. I’ve always strived to bring you all your hearts desires.

What are your strengths?The Hanged Man
My timing is impeccable. You tend to be impatient and impulsive, but I can guide you to suspend actions or delay decisions until the moment of maximum impact. *Note* the card on the bottom of the deck was Strength, reinforcing this

What are your limitations?The Devil
Like you, I can become obsessed and hell-bent on a particular idea or situation. I will not let you ignore a message I have for you, even if it’s not what you’re asking for. It will follow you until you learn it. Only then can we move on.

What are you here to teach me?Four of Cups
Appreciate your success and practice gratitude. Do not grow comfortable with the status quo. Keep seeking your truths and exploring your vast identity. You have no reason to ever e bored or dissatisfied with life.

How can we best collaborate?Two of Swords
We are two balanced powers. Stubborn. Strong. Comrades. Old friends. I’m ready to fight for your future. We must remember to work together as sisters in arms and never against each other.

What’s the potential outcome of our relationship?Eight of Pentacles
From day one we’ve been working closely to forge your confidence and determination to master the art of tarot. If we keep going, we will build a nuanced and detailed practice to guide your journey and successes.

I adore this deck – the way it moves in my hands, slips between my fingers like it’s an extension of my being. My first love. My oldest relationship. The energy of this deck is more like my own than any I have ever encountered.

I jumped into this latest interview with one of my more advanced decks. The Wild Unknown replaces the knights and pages with “son” and “daughter” cards for each suite. The imagery, while whimsical and gorgeous, presents in a watercolor minimalist style that connects deeply with nature instead of adhering to the traditional tarot symbolism. So I’m still pretty married to the guidebooks when I read from this deck.

Tell me about yourselfDaughter of Wands
I am a truly visionary deck. Stronger than my soft appearance suggests. A free spirit who embraces transformation. I’m passionate and emotionally-driven. I’m very excited to connect with you and begin our journey together.

What are your strengths?Ace of Pentacles
Every tree begins with a small seedling. I will be the soil that grounds you. My connection to all things natural will nurture our relationship into a blossoming tree bearing fruit to nourish you on this journey. My specialty is turning passion into opportunity and turning opportunity into wealth of various forms. I will help you manifest abundance through the things you already love.
What are your limitations?Daughter of Pentacles
I can only take you so far. You need to stay focused on the tangible outcomes to fulfill our work.

What are you here to teach me?Temperance
You’ve never been very good at balance, even though it’s balance you seek. I want to help bring harmony to your life. I will teach you how to heal and renew. Through our connection and work, you will learn to better trust the ebb and flow of the Universe and let go so you may flow within her.

How can we best collaborate?The Moon
Embrace your light and shadow so you can keep the whole picture in view. Sometimes you miss the forest for the trees. Let go of mental blocks so we can enjoy the path to our destination.

What’s the potential outcome of our relationship?IX of Wands
We will go far together, to the moon, step by step. The gaps in knowledge and skill will close to bring abundance. Don’t ever stop climbing. Push on and let nothing stand in your way.

The Wild Unknown carries the most peaceful energy of any deck I’ve used. I turn to this deck in times of great stress or conflict to get a deep breath of practicality.

Tell me about yourself.X of Wands
I possess the energy and strength to guide you through your commitments. I work hard and sometimes I take on too much. I’m all about fulfillment. I want to end cycles of ignorance and questioning through discovery and knowledge.

What are your strengths? Temperance
I’m a calming presence. Much like my collage-style imagery, I combine resources to bring balance, healing and patience.

Tell me about yourself.

What are your limitations?Ace of Swords
I can only sharpen your blades of insight and clarity. It’s up to you to determine how to wield that power.

What are you here to teach me?X of Cups
I want to help you learn the immensity of gratitude. The depth of emotional security and self love. And how to better love others.

What are your limitations?

How can we best collaborate?IX of Wands
Be disciplined in your practice and I will be a reliable, dedicated partner. Come to me with high vibes, positive energy and a thirst for wisdom. Through perseverance, we will master your tarot skills.

How can we best collaborate?

What’s the potential outcome of our relationship?VIII of Pentacles
You’ll feel secure in your skills. Grounded in wisdom and intuition. You will possess the resources you need to be a strong and successful reader. People will seek out your services. You could grow a stable schedule of clients and appointments.

Tell me about yourself.VIII of Swords
I balance the intellectual and emotional to find the best path forward. Every trap has an escape if you look at things from a different angle.

What are your strengths?Mars
As an Aries, we’ll go horn to horn sometimes. But I’m aggressive and thorough in my search for answers. I’ll paint stories through multiple cards on your one-card pulls.

What are your limitsVII of Pentacles
Sometimes I’m impatient and easily frustrated. I can get bored and go for the “quick win.”

What are you here to teach me?VII of Swords
Not to run from challenges or darkness or good things or love. But also how to navigate the false motives of others. Trust yourself. Expect others to trust themselves first.

How can we best collaborate?The Scream
Quiet your own voice and listen. Really listen. Not with your ears. With your intuition.

As feminine and open as the Golden Thread was, that’s how difficult this deck felt to me. Very foreign and puzzling. Neither feminine nor masculine. I had to sit with the cards for a while to figure out what they wanted to tell me. Many of the answer cards felt contradictory to my questions. I suppose that makes sense giving their mind-bending psychedelic artwork. To add extra challenge, I drew TWO cards from the Secret Arcana, which really tells me how unique this deck will be. I’m glad I shuffled them into the deck. Until now I had kept them separated, but that didn’t feel right. They need to be a full story.

Which reminds me… there is one card missing. Hibert released a new card with a 10 part experience. Magic. And I bought the whole thing just to get that card. I feel itchy that this deck is incomplete. Maybe that’s why it was so temperamental. I’ll revisit our interview once the final card arrives.